AUDIO: Businessman says doing good works has big impact

PITTSBURGH, PA.
August 27, 2009 12:02am

Bryan Douglas – that’s not his real name because he insists on anonymity – has taken the concept of “pay it forward” to a new level and he’s hoping his experience will be an example for others.

The concept of “pay it forward” is that of not accepting compensation for a good deed, but asking that the recipient do a good turn to others instead.

“I keep seeing on the news all the time a lot of negative things going on,” says Mr. Douglas, explaining what prompted him to take an unusual journey.

He will only say he holds a job with a small business in the Pittsburgh, Pa., area. He declines to be more specific.

Earlier this year, he sought out people who needed help, using the Craiglist site for Chicago. He says he picked Chicago at random. He wrote a Craiglist note “pretty much saying, hey, I’ll come up to your city and help you out with something. I don’t want anything in return. I just mainly want you help someone and pay it forward.”

When he narrowed the responses down to five people who he felt were sincerely in need of help, he drove from Pittsburgh to Chicago, contacted the five and performed the tasks, asking only that they “pay it forward.”

(Mr. Douglas talks about his unusual adventure and what it has generated in today’s CVBT Audio Interview via Skype. Please left-click on the link below to listen now or right-click to download the MP3 audio file for later listening.)

The story was picked up by a Chicago online news outlet and later by a Pittsburgh newspaper. It’s since become a hit of the Internet.

“What I wanted to see was if you could actually do something, not involving money or cutting a check, but actually random acts of kindness, if it would make a difference,” says Mr. Douglas. “I was mainly winging it.”

He says the recipients were grateful and in the case of at least one person, the “pay it forward” came the next day in helping Mr. Douglas assist another person who needed help.

He and a friend, Sean Martin, have written a book detailing the experience and offering suggestions of simple no-cost or low-cost ways to offer random acts of kindness. It is “Doing Good Works!” (Think Big Press, Bethel, Pa., September 2009).

“Everyone thinks that they have to do something grandiose to make a difference that I think it scares people to not do anything,” says Mr. Douglas. “It’s the small things that may make a big difference in someone’s life.”